Just imagine if someone came up to you and told you that you and your family
were to be deported to Bangladesh in a week’s time to start a new life, and
that all you could take with you was one suitcase and one hundred dollars.

“Yes, we know you can’t speak Bengali, but you’ll pick it up.”

And then, after a couple of decades of hard work building up your life
there, you would be told to do the same again by moving to Lower Slobovia or
somewhere similar.

“Yes, we know you can’t speak Lower Slobovian, but ...”

Hard to imagine, isn’t it? But that’s exactly what happened to the Tarasovs
and to millions of other refugees from last century’s wars.

The
Tarasov Saga: From Russia through China to Australia

is the

TRUE
STORY

of
a close-knit family during a tumultuous era

Tarasov, a
colonel in the ‘White’ Russian army, his wife Aida and their five children
suffered the traumas of the Revolution and the Civil War which followed it.
The story details Aida’s search for her husband across the vast expanse of
Siberia,
her separation from her five children during the turmoil, and the
unbelievable events which led to the family’s eventual escape into China in
1922.

A
new life began in the bustling city of
Harbin,
the “Moscow of the Orient”. Years of hard work and deprivation brought them
some semblance of a good life, only to have it shattered by the arrival of
the Japanese aggressors in 1937. The War years followed, and then a few
years of relative peace before the arrival of the Chinese ‘Reds’. The
consequent mass exodus of the ‘White’ Russians from China in 1949 to a
Displaced Persons’ Camp on the uninhabited Philippine island of
Tubabao
is chronicled with startling detail. The final leg of this epic journey
brings the whole family to Australia.

The
story gives a vivid description of life in the Russified city of Harbin, the
Foreign Concessions of Tientsin
and
Shanghai,
and the exclusive resort of
Peitaiho Beach.
It also covers the early years of the family’s experiences in Australia
during the era of the ‘New Australian’. Richly illustrated with 150
photographs and maps, it also contains interesting, little known
historical details about Russia and China.

The
author writes:

“The tough life, the deprivations -
these are what made our parents and grandparents courageous and resilient.
They had to fight for everything. They learned not to wilt under pressure,
nor to take anything for granted. They treated hardship as just a normal
phase of life, a stepping-stone to a brighter future. And they were grateful
for the good times when they came.”

The book is 280 pages long, 225 x 150 mm, high quality
paper, with 150 photographs and illustrations interspersed through the text.
It also has a comprehensive Index.

extraordinary taleof a
Russian family’s changing fortunes throughout the 20th century … the book is
crammed with details of life in pre-Soviet Russia; in the extra-territorial
Western communities within Chinese cities; on the Displaced Persons' Camp on
the Philippine island of Tubabao ; and in post-war
Australia … The prose is simple and
direct; the material riveting.”

The
Author, Gary
Nash (born Igor Ivashkoff) is the grandson of Colonel Tarasov. Born in
Tientsin, China, he lived there for 17 years before migrating with his
family to Australia in 1949.

The story is based on the vivid recollections of the Tarasov siblings and
his own memories. After retiring from IBM, Gary involved himself in music
and formed the Trio Slav, a classical Piano Trio. Gary is the pianist.

Unfortunately, there is
no current distributor in the USA, so the copies available there are through
resellers. However there is a distributor for Europe, supplying bookshops
and the UK Amazon website.